JUDGE LAW'S ORATION 



BEFORE THE 



GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 



SAVANNAH. 



h-/ o 



-m 



DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED BEFOKE THE 



GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 



SAVANNAH, 



WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1840. 



By WILLIAM LAW, 




SAVANNAH. 

PUBLISHED BV A RESOLUTION OF THE SOCIETY. 



MDCCCXL. 



-j-»5of boston: 

. Ai FKEEMAN AND BOLLES, PEINTEKS, 



WASHINGTON STREET. 



ORATION. 



When the great historic Poet of the Greeks derived his 
heroes from the gods, and ascribed their constant guidance 
and protection to some ethereal deity ; when he sang of the 
renowned exploits of their ancestors combatting and van- 
quishing the fabled Centaurs, "rude dwellers on the mountain 
heights," t he ministered to a taste and sentiment of his 
countryn>en natural to the human heart, and common to the 
human family. Prompted by pride and vanity all nations 
have desired to increase the lustre of their origin, and the 
fame of their ancestry, by filling the " immense vacuity," 
which lies beyond the limits of well authenticated memo- 
rials, with the splendid inventions of fable. We delight to 
honor the memories and celebrate the virtues of our Fore- 
fathers. The existence of this inherent principle is attested 
and illustrated by universal example. To gratify its indul- 
gence, the boundaries of truth have been exceeded, and the 
mysteries of obscure antiquity penetrated. To heighten its 

* The Georgia Historical Society was not organized until Tuesday, the Atli of June, 
1839. But the 12th of February, the day on which Oglethorpe landed in Geor- 
gia, has been selected as a more appropriate period for its anniversary. 

The indulgence in extensive details, which characterizes the following sheets, 
may strike the public taste and judgment as unsuitable to a public address. The 
writer has been betrayed into this error, if so it be conceived, from an anxious desire 
to awaken an interest for his subject, and excite a spirit of research and inquiry into 
the events and incidents of our colonial history, by reviving the remembrance of 
facts almost lost sight of. 

The oldiT books furnishing sketches of the early history of Georgia are exceed- 
ingly rare, and are accessible only to a few; even McCall's History has not been 
republished; and is becoming scarce and not very generally road. It was supposed, 
too, that in this introductory address the public curiosity would be most gratified, 
and the expectations of the Association best fulfilled, by the course adopted. 

t Cowper's Homer. 
1 



interest, eloquence has contributed the charm of its inimita- 
ble art, while poetry has aroused the fancy, and bewildered 
the imao;ination in the wild regions of fiction. 

The proud Roman traced his genealogy from the gods, 
and claimed for the infancy and weakness of the eternal city, 
the guardian care of his imaginary deities. In their most 
refined day, the Greeks erected the " ostentatious fiction" 
that the gods alone were worthy to have reared the infancy 
of a people so distinguished in arts and so renowned in arms. 

To review the characters and actions of our ancestors, to 
look back upon the origin of our country, to trace her pro- 
gress towards maturity, to cultivate a familiar acquaintance 
with, and to perpetuate the prominent events which have 
conduced to her establishment and the formation of the na- 
tional character, is an exercise designed not merely to gratify 
even a laudable and well founded national pride, but one 
which opens a wide field for the indulgence alike of our curi- 
osity and profoundest meditations, and replete with the most 
instructive admonitions. 

There is a land, in relation to whose origin, all fiction van- 
ishes and truth is reahzed ; where the fable of the Greek 
and the Roman is converted into the fact at which her peo- 
ple rejoice, and for which their gratitude ascends to the 
throne of God — a land whose origin depends upon no 
legendary tales drawn from an obscure and remote antiquity, 
but is revealed with unerring accuracy, and recorded in the 
simplicity of uncolored truth. — That land is our Country. 

There is a land, the settlement of which was the result of 
the power of religious principle — of a desire to escape the 
persecutions of religious intolerance, to enjoy freedom of con- 
science in the worship of God, and to regulate the life and 
conduct by the light of the Gospel. The hand of an ever- 
faithful God, whom its setders had served, conducted, and 
his protecting providence preserved them during a long and 
perilous voyage, amidst the blasts of the ocean tempest, and 
the terrors of the winter's storm. The pillar of cloud by day, 
and the pillar of fire by night moved not indeed before them. 
The age of miracles had passed away, prophecy and vision 
had ceased to be mediums of heavenly communications. 
The fulfilment of the most sublime of all prophecies had been 
accompUshed, and the promised messenger had descended 
to enlighten and sanctify the world. Guided by his holy 



influences this peculiar people, zealous of the honor and ser- 
vice of Jehovah, were conducted to a new world ; where for 
the first time a temple was raised to the Lord, the prayer of 
faith ascended, and the song of gratitude and joy broke the 
silence of the solitary wilderness — that song which Moses 
sang, " The Lord is our strength and song, and he is become 
our salvation. He is our God and we will prepare him an 
habitation." — That land is our common country. 

Forever may that prayer continue to ascend in this grate- 
ful country. Forever may that song continue to praise our 
Father's God. Long, O long, may that habitation continue 
to stand, embracing as it now does the wide limits of our 
extended country, until it shall number among the worship- 
ers of the Redeemer the vast multitude of our busy and 
increasing population. 

There is a country, the eventful vicissitudes of whose pro- 
gress from infancy to national maturity and greatness ; the 
extraordinary and successful results which marked that pro- 
gress, far transcending the natural agencies employed, point 
the eye of faith with unwavering confidence to a special 
superintending Providence which controls and directs the 
affairs of nations as well as of individuals : while the dictates 
of reason combine with the suggestions of faith to assure 
us, that the great Ruler of the world has selected and estab- 
hshed there the abode of a chosen people, entrusted with 
the care and maintenance of those great principles of Chris- 
tian piety and civil liberty, which, radiating upon the nations 
of the earth, are destined to bless the world with light, lib- 
erty and happiness. — That Country is our own. 

What a field for profound reflection and useful instruction 
is presented by the review of the early history of such a 
country ? Can we meditate upon the piety of our Forefa- 
thers, and will not the standard of our moral and religious 
feelings (the firmest basis upon which our Republic rests) be 
elevated ? Can we dwell upon their struggles and constancy 
in the cause of civil freedom, and will not our patriotism burn 
in a purer and brighter flame ? Can we study the institu- 
tions which their prudence and wisdom have erected for the 
security of the rights of man, and will not the boundaries of 
our own wisdom be enlarged the better to maintain and 
transmit these inestimable rights to posterity ? 



Gentlemen of the Georgia Historical Society : 

It is for the purpose of making our contribution (with par- 
ticular reference to our own State) to the means for the com- 
pletion and perfection of the extended chain of our country's 
history, that this Association has been organized, and this 
anniversary occasion is observed. History is but a series of 
causes and effects, instructing as well by the power and 
force of example as by the deductions of philosophy. The 
preservation of all, even the minute facts and incidents of all 
the parts and members, is essential to the perfection of the 
whole ; and no single link in the great chain can be severed, 
without impairing the useful and accurate instruction it is 
adapted to impart. As we recede from the period of our 
origin and infancy the means of correct information must 
constantly diminish ; while time and accident will obscure 
and obliterate much that is valuable and worthy of preserva- 
tion. 

At once then, to direct the public attention to the subject, 
to arouse its curiosity, to awaken its interest, to combine and 
concentrate the talent and industry of the State in "collect- 
ing, preserving and diffusing information relating to the his- 
tory of Georgia in all its various departments, and to American 
history generally," * this is the interesting object, the noble 
purpose of your Society. 

We come here to withdraw ourselves for a sacred hour 
from the busy scenes of life, from the cares and pursuits of 
the present, to meditate on the past, to commune with the 
spirits of our ancestors, to familiarize ourselves with the 
knowledge of our own state and country. How rich the 
field in which we are invited to roam, how various the topics 
which claim and merit our observation ! In the successive 
returns of this celebration, the Orator will select from the 
mass of appropriate subjects — he will sketch the lives and 
characters of some of the most distinguished personages of 
our earlier history, with their influences upon the destinies of 
their country. He will link, as it were, the present with the 
past ; in visions of hope he will associate both with the 
future. He will ascend along the hne of ancestral history 
up to our beginnings, and examine the civil and political 
institutions of that early day, commencing with the charter, 

^ Constitution of the Society. 



propriety and royal governments in the different colo- 
nies ; and trace their influence and bearing upon the subse- 
quent political events of the country. He will explore the 
foundation and elements of our social union, mark their 
progressive operation in the organization of society, to the 
full developement of principles in that beautiful system, under 
which, the nation reposes in happiness and security. The 
systems of education, progress of learning, and present con- 
dition of hterature will not escape observation — and the 
history of religion, with its practical effects upon the moral 
character, habits and manners of the people, will not be over- 
looked. In occasional connection with his subject, the orator 
will descend down the stream of that distant posterity where 
reality is lost in hope, where the mind staggers at the con- 
templation, and the eye grows dim at the bright visions 
which blaze around the distant future ; and amid the expan- 
sion of her noble principles and free institutions anticipate 
the coming glory and rising grandeur of his country. Such 
are some among the ample materials which the plan of your 
Society will furnish, as separate and successive themes, for 
the exercises of this day. Upon this, the occasion of our 
first assemblage, I shall limit myself to the performance of a 
more humble task, whilst I briefly remark upon the forma- 
tion and progress of Historical Societies in our country, invite 
your attention to a brief consideration of portions of our early 
history, and endeavor to present some of its prominent facts 
and incidents in a form, I trust, more attractive than the 
mere details and narrative of history. 

The history of Georgia has been written ; much that was 
ready to perish has been there rescued from oblivion and pre- 
served to posterity. But the history of Georgia is not com- 
plete, nor indeed can be, without the aids to be obtained 
from the manuscript papers in the offices of the English 
government. Many years since, the state of Georgia applied 
to the general government for its interposition in obtaining 
copies of such manuscripts having reference to this State ; 
and in 1828, a bill for this object, and making provision for 
procuring copies of all the papers in the English offices rela- 
ting to the colonial history of this country, was reported in 
congress. It was never acted on. That this measure 
should have encountered such a fate is truly to be deplored. 
The subject was altogether worthy of the attention of con- 



8 

gress, and was appropriately the business of the national 
government. The importance of preserving their records 
has been justly appreciated by every people as far back as 
we have traces of civilized society. That Moses in the wil- 
derness, and Aaron, and the ancient Israehtes under the 
Kings had national repositories for national documents has 
been rendered more than probable by a variety of arguments 
which cannot here be recapitulated.* Among the ancient 
Egyptians, the preservation of the public records was an im- 
portant duty of the priesthood. The Persians had their 
house of rolls or records, for we read in Holy Writ that 
Darius, the king, ordered search to be made in the house 
of rolls, whether it be so, that a decree was made of Cyrus, 
the king, Slc. 

Athens and Rome had their public libraries and reposito- 
ries, and among modern nations none has manifested a 
higher sense of the importance of this duty than England. 
Her parliament makes an annual appropriation for printing 
ancient manuscript records and documents, to more than 
double the amount it would cost the United States to pro- 
cure a copy of all the American colonial papers.f Yet 
these essential materials of American colonial history remain 
shut up in the office of the Board of Trade and Plantations 
in England. 

The National Library at Washington is represented as 
being remarkably deficient in books and information relating 
to America. A copy of these papers, deposited in the na- 
tional archives, would constitute an invaluable addition and 
secure the necessary materials for the future historian of our 
country. 

The State has not been wholly insensible to the impor- 
tance of this subject. In 1824, a gentleman J was engaged 
by the legislature to collate, arrange and publish the papers, 
relating to this matter, in the State offices at Milledgeville. 
He was subsequently induced to visit England and collect 
facts with the view of writing our history. The death of 
that genUeman deprived the public of the benefits of his 
labors. The State has recently made renewed efforts for 

* See National Register, published in London, 1819. Introductory remarks to the 
Report of the Committee of the House of Commons, upon the propriety of purchas- 
ing, for the public, Dr. Binney's library. 

1 Sec an article in N. A. Review, for 1830. t Joseph Vallence Bevan. 



9 

this purpose through the agency of one,* who has succeeded 
in procuring twenty-two folio manuscript volumes, copied 
from the English offices, and by your last legislature depos- 
ited in the archives of this Society. From the judgment, 
ability and industry of this gentleman, it is believed much 
valuable information will be found to be contained in them. 
While these exertions have been making to gather materials 
abroad, it cannot fail to be gratifying, that an institution has 
risen up to secure and preserve whatever valuable and in- 
structive may be collected at home. And surely there is 
much to be done here. The object of the Society will be 
to collect every printed volume, pamphlet, document and 
manuscript having relation to our early history, — especially 
during the period of the Revolution. The correspondence 
of officers of the army ; and many valuable papers of this 
kind, are now scattered through the country in the hands of 
the descendants of these gallant men. Correspondence of 
the early governors of the State, and of our delegates in 
congress, during that period, will also be interesting and 
claim its attention. The publication of the most important 
of such manuscripts, for their preservation and diffusion, will 
probably be attempted. Georgia, we trust, will not want a 
competent historian to use and combine the mass of mate- 
rials that may be thus collected and secured from these vari- 
ous sources. Massachusetts has the honor of having set 
the example and led the way in the organization of these 
useful associations. Her far-famed Society was organized 
as early as the year 1791, by some of her distinguished citi- 
zens, among whom were Belknap and Sullivan, the histori- 
ans. It has published about thirty octavo volumes. 

The New York Society was organized in 1804, by 
Egbert. Benson, her first president, De Witt Clinton, T. L. 
Mitchell, Dr. Hossack, and others. It has published four 
volumes; the last of which comprised the second volume 
of Smith's History of New York, left by the author in 
manuscript. 

In New Hampshire a society was formed in 1822; her 
first volume appeared in 1824. 

In 1815, a Committee of the American Philosophical So- 
ciety, of Philadelphia, was formed expressly for historical 

* Rev. Charles Wallace Howard. 



10 

purposes. More recently a new Historical Society has been 
established in Pennsylvania, at the head of which is the ven- 
erable Peter S. Duponceau. 

In Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia and Ohio, these 
associations exist. And it is with unfeigned gratification, I 
now congratulate you gentlemen, upon being able to add to 
this list the Georgia Historical Society.* 

In considering the immediate causes which led to the 
setdement of Georgia, we cannot fail to be struck with the 
truth, that the most important events are frequently the re^ 
suit of remote circumstances, having in the beginning no 
conceivable connection with their ultimate consequences. 

In the year 1729 a committee was raised in the English 
parliament for the purpose of investigating the condition of 
the prisons, of relieving suffering victims of misfortune and 
correcting abuses. This humane effort owed its existence to 
James Oglethorpe, then a member of parliament, by whom 
it was moved ; and who, as chairman of the committee, was 
most active and diligent in giving salutary effect to the 
measure. A great number of persons were found suffering 
under a rigorous and cruel confinement, who had been im- 
prisoned for inability to discharge their debts. Many of 
these were rescued by the committee from cruel oppression, 
and the authors of their suflferings exposed to an indignant 
public. It was a noble enterprise, a generous care for the 
" many who pine in want and dungeon gloom," " shut from 
the common air, and common use of their own limbs." It 
merited the poet's praise, when, in lines as sweet as the act 
of mercy he commended, he sang 

■ " the generous band, 



Who, touched with human woe, redressive searched 
Into the horrors of the gloomy jail ! 
Unpitied and unheard, where misery moans ; 
Where sickness pines; where thirst and hunger burn, 
And poor misfortune feels the lash of vice. 

^ ^ -^ ^- 

O great design ! if executed well, 
With patient care and wisdom-temper'd zeal. 
Ye sons of mercy ! yet resume the search; 
Drag forth the legal monsters into light, 
Wrench from their hands oppression's iron rod, 
And bid the cruel feel the pains they give." t 

* I have gleaned my information of the existence and progress of these societies 
from articles in the North American Review, and from a manuscript note by a gen- 
tleman in New York, kindly furnished by a friend. 

t Thompson's Winter. 



11 

This generous work was not destined to an imperfect con- 
summation. It is the quality of that fine attribute of our 
natures which sympathizes with others' woes, to grow and 
expand by the double blessing it imparts, blessing "him that 
gives as well as him that takes." The destitute condition 
of those thus rescued from the horrors of confinement 
prompted Mr. Oglethorpe and his humane coadjutors to 
more extended plans for their effectual relief; and to em- 
brace within the circle of their beneficence a muhitude of 
unfortunate persons in the kingdom, who, in the descriptive 
language of that day, were " of respectable families, and of 
hberal or at least easy education ; some undone by guar- 
dians, some by law suits, some by accidents in commerce, 
some by stocks and bubbles, and some by suretyship." * 
To meliorate the condition and effectually relieve the wants 
of this unfortunate class ; to afford also an asylum for poor 
and distressed protestants driven from Germany, to seek 
refuge in England, the benevolent and enlightened scheme 
was formed of planting a colony in Georgia. The appli- 
cation to the crown for this purpose was seconded by con- 
siderations of public policy and utility. It was seen that the 
contemplated colony would form a barrier and protection for 
that of South Carolina against the Spaniards and Indians ; 
and might be instrumental in retaining the powerful tribes of 
Southern Indians in the interest of Great Britain, in opposi- 
tion to the encroachments of Spanish and French influence 
upon them — while a critical position would thus be occu- 
pied, which otherwise, there was reason to believe, would 
have been occupied by the French. f Thus were beauti- 
fully blended, in the very origin of this settlement, the prin- 
ciples of true patriotism with disinterested love for mankind. 

No selfish purpose was sought, no personal benefit ob- 
tained, no individual aggrandizement promoted by these 
noble philanthropists, who, in advancing the happiness of 
others, were the first to set the example of generous contri- 
butions from the treasury of their own wealth. Thus strik- 
ingly did they exemplify their appropriate motto, "JVb?i 
sibi sed aliis.^^ 

In June, 1732, a charter of incorporation of the Trustees 
was obtained. And in November of the same year, Mr. 

* Pamphlet puWished in London in 1733. 

t Harris's Collection of Early Voyages and Travels, published in 1747. 

2 



12 

Oglethorpe, with a hundred and sixteen persons, sailed from 
Gravesend and reached Charleston, in South Carolina, in 
January, 1733.* 

Gentlemen of the Society ! You have been pleased to 
identify this anniversary with the day consecrated by the 
landing of the founder of our city with his htde colony on the 
bluff of Yamacraw. We stand this day on that spot. Here 
is the bluff, and we are here in the midst of the ancient city 
of Oglethorpe. Who does not feel the influence of a sacred 
inspiration 1 The inspiration of the day and of the place. 
Whose feelings are not irresistibly conducted back to the 
interesting events of that scene? The landing is effected, 
the bluff is ascended, the tents are spread. Before them is 
the wild face of nature, the vast wilderness with its gloomy 
shades and deep solitudes, unbroken save by the rustling 
footsteps of the savage hunter cautiously pursuing the tiuiid 
game. Who does not enter into their feelings ; their doubts, 
their fears ? The surrounding neighborhood is explored ; 
and this spot is selected as the site of a city to bear the 
name of the noble stream which flows at its base ; and des- 
tined, we trust, to remain the commercial emporium of the 
State, and to maintain an honorable competition among her 
southern sisters. Here we become spectators, as it were, 
of the interview between the European stranger and the red 
warrior of his native woods. There we see Oglethorpe ex- 
plaining the object of his visit, expatiating upon the power, 
grandeur and wealth of his king and country ; proffering 
friendship, and proposing to treat for a portion of lands. And 
here Tomochichi, the Indian chief, impressed with solemn re- 
spect and awe for the strangers and their country, reciprocating 
professions of friendship, and in the simplicity of his coun- 
ti-y's custom, presenting the buffaloe's skin adorned with 
the head and feathers of the eagle, in token of his profound 
sense of the greatness and power of the country of his visit- 
ers, expressing his acquiescence in the formation of a treaty 
for land, and his desire of perpetual peace. 

We pause for a moment at this point of time, whilst the 
axe is laid to the tree, the wilderness begins to disappear, 
and the first rude dwellings of Savannah to arise. 

A few months have rolled away, and a second arrival is 

* Dr. Hewatt, Harris and McCall. 



13 

greeted and cheered. But who are these ? From what 
country come they? For what causes are they thus seek- 
ing a home in this new and desert world 1 These are un- 
fortunate Salzburghers from Germany — exiled from their 
country for conscience sake — devoted to their religious 
principles, they have here sought an asylum and a home 
from persecution and want. This is the glorious effort of 
the society in England for the propagation of the Gospel in 
foreign parts, wiio advanced to the Trustees a sum of money 
sufficient to provide for seven hundred Salzburghers. These 
embarkations in September and October, 1733, consisted of 
thi-ee hundred and forty-one persons,* who were settled at 
Ebenezer, in the county of Effingham ; where they have 
always maintained a church and minister and kept up a com- 
munication with their church in Germany. 

The story of those religious dissensions which, so late as 
the eighteenth century, terminated in the expulsion of twenty- 
five thousand persons from their country and their home, be- 
longs to history. Seventeen thousand of them settled in the 
Prussian States. A large number took refuge in England: 
c£33,000 were raised for their relief in London. Many of 
these were sent to Georgia and proved excellent colonists. 
They were visited by Mr. Whitefield at Ebenezer, in 173S; 
of whom he remarked, that their lands w^ere surprisingly im- 
proved — they were blessed with two such pious ministers 
as he had not often seen; they had no courts of judicature, 
but all httle differences were immediately settled by their 
ministers. They had an Orphan House with seventeen child- 
ren and a widow. 

Many of the settlers were from Herrnhut, the singular re- 
ligious establishment founded upon his estates, by the yet 
more singular and eccentric Count Zinzendorf, who was 
himself for a time banished from his country. From this 
place came Augustus Gottleib Spangenburg, a man of learn- 
ing, who had spent many years at the University of Jena, 
had been invited to Halle, from whence he retired to Herrn- 
hut, and was finally sent out to Georgia to regulate as pastor 
the Moravian establishment. It was of these people that 
Mr. Wesley, being present at one of their religious confer- 
ences and solemn ordination of a bishop, said, the great sim- 

* McCall. Harris says, 1734. 



14 

plicity as well as solemnity of the whole scene, almost made 
him forget the seventeen hundred years between, and ima- 
gine himself in one of those assemblies where form and state 
were not, but Paul the tent-maker, or Peter the fisherman 
presided, — yet with the demonstration of the spirit and of 
power. 

Time rolls on, and the beginning of the year 1735 brings 
another and a third arrival. Ay, thrice welcome these, 
whose brawny arms, and stalwart muscles fit them alike to 
cultivate the soil, and to constitute a rampart between the 
hostile Spaniards, with their savage allies, and the earlier 
and more feeble settlers at Savannah. These are the High- 
landers of Scotland. Upon their arrival they instantly occu- 
py the post of danger, and upon the banks of the Alatamaha 
found the now town of Darien. A position exposed and 
hazardous from its nearer proximity to the Spaniards. 

The description which was given of these deep deserts 
and gloomy wilds, excited the poetic imagination of Gold- 
smith in that graphic account of them found in the deserted 
village : — 

" To distant climes, a dreary scene, they go, 
Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe. 
Far different these from all that charmed before, 
The various terrors of that distant shore ; 
Those matted woods where birds forget to sing, 
But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling; 
Those poisonous fields with rank luxuriance crown'd. 
Where the dark scorpion gathers death around, 
Where at each step the stranger fears to wake 
The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake, 
Where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey, 
And savage men, more murderous still than they. 
Far different these from every former scene." 

General Oglethorpe, who went to England in the spring 
of 1734, accompanied by Tomochichi and several other In- 
dians, followed, on his return, this last arrival, bringing with 
him four hundred and seventy persons ; which was denomi- 
nated the great embarkation. This arrival was on the 6th 
February, 1735.^ They were settled at Frederica, on the 
island of St. Simons. The two Wesleys, John and Charles, 
came at this time. John remained in Savannah, and Charles 
went to Frederica, as secretary to Oglethorpe. Many per- 
sons of education, family and distinction, accompanied Ogle- 
thorpe at their own expense, in his various embarkations for 

* Harris. McCall makes it 1736, and differs as to numbers, «S:c. 



15 

Georgia, (among whom were many of the liberal, warm- 
hearted and republican sons of Ireland — so eminently devo- 
ted to the cause of liberty in the subsequent history of our 
country,) and became permanent setUers and inhabitants of 
the colony. The names of many of these sound familiarly 
and daily upon our ears in the persons of their descendants. 
Such were the primary and original materials for the settle- 
ment of the colony of Georgia. 

We have also, from an early date, claimed a connection 
with our New England countrymen, more endearing than 
the ties of fellowship which bind the inhabitants of a com- 
mon country ; while the colony was yet under the care of 
the Trustees, about the year 1752,* a large emigration of 
descendants from our New England brethren, who had 
previously removed to South Carolina, arrived in Georgia 
and settled at Medway, in the parish of St. John, now county 
of Liberty, having received a grant for thirty-two thousand 
acres of land. They brought with them that devotion to 
religious principle, and observance of its duties which had 
characterized, and all the patriotism and love of liberty which 
warmed the bosoms of their New England ancestors. 

Their noble example has not been lost upon the county 
in which they settled, but is conspicuous to this day in the 
excellent police, exemplary order, fervent piety and devotion 
to country, which now as ever distinguished the county of 
Liberty. A fair name, won by the spirited determination of 
her inhabitants, at the breaking out of the Revolution, to send 
delegates to congress before the rest of the province had 
agreed to acquiesce in that measure. 

A plan, devised in mercy to mitigate the sorrows of suf- 
fering humanity, has subjected Georgia to the ungracious 
taunt of having been peopled from the prisons of England 
and the outcasts of London. So thought not the sweet Poet 
of England in his beautiful description — 

" Lo ! swarming southward on rejoicing suns 

Gay colonics extend ; the calm retreat 

Of undeserved distress, the better home 

Of those whom bigots chase from foreign lands. 

Such, as of late, an Oglethorpe has form'd. 

And crowding round, the pleased Savannah sees."t 

* By the records of Medway Church it appears, that a few persons were sent in 
May, 1752, in search of lands ; and the first settlement was commenced on the 6th 
of December, 1752. 

t Thompson's Liberty. Part V. 



16 

Those, who in the stupidity of folly have ventured to indulge 
the contumely, have overlooked the distinction between mis- 
fortune and vice, and have forgotten, that while we are 
responsible for the latter as the otispring of our own moral 
deformities, the innocent and virtuous, alike with the vicious, 
are obnoxious to the former. It is not the prison which de- 
grades, but the offence which consigns us there. When 
Socrates, after the iniquitous sentence of the Athenian judges, 
was conducted to his prison, Seneca remarked, "it ceased 
to be a prison and henceforth became the abode of virtue 
and habitation of probity." * 

We may not compare this class of our settlers with the 
great philosopher of the ancients, the subject of this beauti- 
ful and just sentiment of the moralist; but the sentiment itself 
may be justly applied to honesty and virtue in the humblest 
circumstances. It is no more possible for the dungeon to. 
obscure the lustre of virtue and innocence, than for the earth 
to destroy the brilliant qualities of the gem which lies im- 
bedded in its bosom. 

While we yet linger around the scenes of this early period, 
permit me to conduct you in imagination to a neighboring 
spot of interesting reminiscence. What are these moulder- 
ing walls, these venerable ruins that here strike our view ? 
Behold here the remains of what was once devoted to youth- 
ful piety and learning — to the care and protection of the 
orphan — this was the orphan house. These ruins speak to 
us of Whitefield and Huntingdon. Of Whitefield, a faithful 
servant of the most high God. A man whose zeal in the 
cause of his divine Master, and whose intense interest for the 
salvation of souls, in despite the ties of kindred and of home, 
urged him across the Atlantic to divide his labors of love be- 
tween the old and new world. 

He was the founder of a new sect ; and a reformer in life, 
in manners and doctrine. Deeply impressed with the de- 
clining state of religion, and mourning over the skepticism and 
want of practical piety which characterized the age, he united 
with the Wesleys and became a Methodist. 

Unable to acquiesce in the doctrine of human perfection, 
as maintained by his great coadjutor, he embraced the prin- 
ciples of Calvin, contended for the doctrine of election and 
final perseverance, and established Calvinistic Methodism. 

■ Rollin. 



17 

He introduced, it is true, no new doctrine when he insisted 
upon the necessity of regeneration and the new birth as es- 
sential to salvation ; but he gave to it its appropriate place 
and importance in the pulpit. Ye must be born again, was 
the great lesson constantly taught and enforced by him. 
He introduced a new style of preaching, and infused into 
the pulpit the ardor and zeal of a mind awakened to the mo- 
mentous interests of an endless future. 

Remarkable for his eloquence and power of extemporane- 
ous speaking, he exerted a resistless control over the minds 
and passions of his hearers ; and both the sinner trembled 
and the believer rejoiced as he painted the terrors of the 
law and reasoned of a judgment to come, or discoursed 
upon the melting mercies of redeeming grace and a Saviour's 
love. Fancy the impression, if you can, as amidst the pass- 
ing storm he exhorted the sinner by all his hopes of happi- 
ness to repent, and avert the wrath of God from being awak- 
ened. And as a gleam of lightning played on the corner 
of his pulpit, he continued, " 'Tis a glance from the angry eye 
of Jehovah!" and as the thunder broke above him, "Hark, 
it was the voice of the Almighty as he passed by in his 
anger!" and as the storm passed away, "Look," said he, 
"upon the rainbow, and praise him that made it ; very beau- 
tiful it is in the brightness thereof. It compasseth the heav- 
ens about with glory ; and the hands of the most high have 
bended it." * 

When the churches of England were closed upon him as 
an agitator and a fanatic, he established a church in the open 
air, the only one in all England large enough to accommo- 
date the vast multitudes of his anxious listeners ; and thus 
he became emphatically the great field preacher. A prac- 
tice followed by Wesley, and to which may be traced the 
camp meetings of the present day. 

His name stands identified with the great religious events 
and revivals in our country at that period. He went among 
all denominations, and he preached for alL He was hailed 
in New York and Philadelphia as a messenger from heaven ; 
and his zeal, pathos and fervor of preaching was soon intro- 
duced into many of their pulpits. 

The result of his example and connection with these 

* Description of WhitetieltTs preaching, by Miss Francis. 



18 

churches was a schism in the Presbyterian church, and the 
establishment of a new Presbytery. The Whitfieldians 
maintained the doctrine of man's natural ability and moral 
inability; and, that he had power to perform the duties 
enjoined by God, provided he but wills to perform them. 
Their opponents contended for man's total inability, as the 
doctrine taught in the Scriptures ; and insisted that nothing 
was gained by the distinction between natural and moral 
ability. It will at once be perceived, that the doctrine of 
Whitefield opened a much wider field for the exercise of his 
declamatory powers in the pulpit. The ministers of New 
England invited him there, complaining in strong terms of 
the general declension of the power and life of godliness in 
their congregations.* Similar results followed his preaching 
and example in New England, and the Presbyterian church 
was divided into parties. The Rev. Jonathan Edwards, a 
man of great learning and sound and well disciphned intel- 
lect, from his former didactic manner, became a most pas- 
sionate pulpit declaimer, and, during a great revival, was so 
much excited as to indulge the belief that the millennial 
glory of the church was suddenly about to burst upon a 
benighted world. It was owing to this circumstance, that 
in the calm of subsequent tranquillity and reflection, that this 
gentleman was led to a careful examination of the heart, 
which produced that invaluable work entitled "Edwards on 
the Affections." 

Struck, from his arrival in Georgia, with the destitute con- 
dition of orphan children in the infant colony, Mr. Whitefield 
immediately conceived the plan of raising funds from charity 
for erecting and maintaining an institution for the support 
and education of orphans. This plan had previously been 
cherished by General Oglethorpe, and an example of its 
successful experiment furnished by Professor Frank of Ger- 
many. Animated by a purely Christian benevolence, the 
perseverance of Whitefield in this laudable undertaking 
vanquished all impediments and discouragements. He 
erected a monument more durable than the marble, which, 
when accident and time have now left scarcely a vestige to 
mark the spot consecrated by his benevolence, will yet dis- 
close his motives and his objects, and perpetuate his memory 

* Backus's History of New England, 



19 

with respect, whilst Georgia has an historian to record or a 
citizen to read the story of his virtues. 

Upon the annunciation of his death, the legislature of 
Georgia unanimously appropriated a sum of money for the 
removal of his remains, to be interred at the Orphan House. 
This design was relinquished only, because the inhabitants 
of Newbury Port, where he died, refused to part with them. 
The property of this institution was in 1808, by act of the 
legislature, ordered to be sold ; one fifth of the net proceeds 
were applied to the uses of the Savannah Poor House and 
Hospital Society ; and the remainder equally divided between 
the Union Society in Savannah and the Chatham Academy, 
upon the condition, that the latter institution support and 
educate at least five orphan children from its funds.* 

But this spot reminds us also of Selina, Countess of 
Huntingdon — of that excellent lady the friend and patron- 
ess of Whitefield. Her best eulogium will be pronounced 
in a brief reference to some of the prominent acts of her 
life. By her munificent contributions she essentially aided 
Mr. Whitefield in the establishment of his Orphan House, — 
to which she bequeathed a large donation at her death. 
She built and endowed a college in Wales for the education 
of pious young men for the ministry. She threw open her 
house in London for the preaching of the gospel of Christ 
— she erected chapels for that purpose in different parts of 
the kingdom — and she was estimated to have appropriated 
during her christian life, for the propagation of the gospel and 
to institutions for the relief of the poor, near half a million 
of dollars. A full-sized portrait of this memorable lady, 
originally the property of the Orphan House, but now of the 
Chatham Academy, is preserved in remembrance of her. 
But what is that portrait of the person and the features, in 
comparison with that fine picture of the heart — of benevo- 
lence and piety and virtue presented to our minds by a re- 
ference to her life and actions? When every trace of the 
pencil shall have been obliterated, and the canvass itself 
shall have mouldered into dust, these will commend her 
name to the respect and veneration of posterity wherever 
christian benevolence is esteemed a virtue, or christian piety 
has a votary. 

* See Clayton's Digest, page 463. 



20 

We have now to enter upon a new era in the history of 
this infant settlement ; and a new current of events claim 
our attention. The prudence, wisdom and good conduct of 
General Oglethorpe had realized the most sanguine expec- 
tations, in engaging and retaining the Indians in the interest 
of England. But the territory of Georgia was claimed 
by the king of Spain, and this colony was the source of 
increasing jealousy with the Spaniards of Florida. General 
Oglethorpe, sensible of the tendency of this feeling, and 
anxious for the safety of the colony, went to England in the 
latter part of the year 1736, and procured a regiment to be 
raised, of which he was appointed colonel, with the rank 
of general and commander-in-chief of the forces of South 
Carolina and Georgia. Difficulties between the courts of 
Madrid and St. James continuing unadjusted, war was form- 
ally declared by England against Spain in 1739. Oglethorpe 
received instructions to commence offensive operations 
against Florida and to exert his power of annoyance. The 
invasion of Florida, in the summer of 1740, and an unsuc- 
cessful attempt upon St. Augustine followed. 

After suffering many hardships from disease and exposure, 
and losing nearly a whole company of Highlanders surprised 
at Fort Moosa, this siege was raised ; and Oglethorpe returned 
to Frederica. The scene of action was soon to be shifted, 
and Georgia in turn was invaded by the Spaniards. Re- 
stored to the freedom of the seas, by the withdrawal of the 
British fleet under Admiral Vernon from the West Indies, 
the Spaniards in 1742 fitted out a large armament at Havan- 
nah destined for the conquest of Georgia; which, being 
strengthened by the forces at St. Augustine, entered St. 
Simon's sound with thirty-two sail carrying five thousand 
men. The garrison at Frederica consisted of but six hundred 
and ninety men and some Indians. A dark and portentous 
cloud now lowered over this feeble colony, threatening to 
burst upon it with overwhelming ruin. The destiny of 
Georgia and the fate of Carolina were involved in the result. 
The enemy entered the river Alatamaha, cut off all supplies 
from the garrison, hoisted the red flag at the mizzen mast of 
their largest ship, debarked upon the island, erected a bat- 
tery and mounted twenty eighteen pounders. 

The General perceived and appreciated his situation ; he 
determined, in the face of this overwhelming force, to main- 



21 

tain his position and act defensively. The haughty Don 
ordered his detachments to march to the attack of Frederica 
— but they had to pass " deep morasses and dark thickets 
hned with fierce Indians and wild Highlanders," * and many 
a Spaniard who penetrated these wilds never emerged 
from them. In these repeated conflicts the enemy were 
always repulsed with great loss of men, and some of their 
best officers. Oglethorpe, learning from a prisoner that the 
forces from Havannah and St. Augustine encamped sepa- 
rately, conceived the bold design of surprising one of these 
encampments in the night; almost at the moment of attack 
he was disappointed by one of his men, who ran off, fired 
his gun and gave the alarm. The General's embarrassment 
was now greatly increased from an apprehension that the 
deserter would discover his weakness to the enemy. His 
ingenuity supplied the means of escape. He addressed a 
letter to the deserter desiring him to acquaint the enemy 
with the defenceless state of Frederica, and how easily they 
might cut him and his small garrison to pieces. He urged 
him as his spy to bring them on the attack and assure them 
of success ; but if he could not prevail with them to make 
that attempt to use all his art and influence to persuade them 
to stay at least three days more, within which time, he would 
be reinforced with two thousand land forces and six British 
ships of war. This letter was entrusted to a Spanish priso- 
ner to be delivered to the deserter, but who, as was foreseen, 
placed it in the hands of the commander-in-chief. While 
the Spaniards were deliberating how to interpret the letter, 
fortunately, three vessels, which the governor of South 
Carolina had despatched, appeared off the coast. This, 
seeming to confirm the contents of the letter, ended their 
deliberations and struck such a panic into the Spanish army 
that they immediately embarked, having set fire to their fort, 
and leaving a quantity of military stores and provisions with 
several pieces of cannon. Thus, by the firmness, skill and 
ingenuity of the General, was the colony rescued from the 
impending danger of total destruction. 

The tempest which threatened to sweep her from exist- 
ence had ineffectually spent itself, and was succeeded by 
the joys and gratulations of the colony. A high sense of 

* Hewatt. 



22 

the character and signally good conduct of the General, upon 
this trying occasion, was entertained and abundantly mani- 
fested by the different provinces through the many compli- 
mentary epistles addressed to General Oglethorpe by their 
respective governors. 

We approach the termination of General Oglethorpe's ad- 
ministration in Georgia. Having spent eleven years of his life 
in settling and defending the colony, during which time he 
had exercised a sole control over its affairs, he was now 
about to leave it, never to return to Georgia. He had watch- 
ed over it with paternal solicitude and care — he had en- 
countered the severest hardships and exposed himself to 
disease and dangers of every kind in its defence. He sailed 
for England in 1743, leaving behind him a character combin- 
ing all that was lovely in generosity, benevolence and phi- 
lanthropy, with the sterner attributes of the soldier. At the 
tender age of thirteen Oglethorpe entered the army as an 
ensign. He was soon a heutenant in the guards of Queen 
Anne, and afterwards an aid of the Earl of Peterborough. 
Between the ages of seventeen and eighteen he passed over 
to the continent ; and upon the recommendations of the 
Dukes of Argyle and Marlboro' was received into service 
by the invincible imperial General, Prince Eugene. He was 
with the Prince in the great battle at Petuwarden on the 
Danube, in which fifty thousand troops of the imperial army 
encountered and defeated one hundred and fifty thousand 
Turks under the Grand Viser Ali. He was also with him 
at the great battle and taking of Belgrade, where the Turks 
were again signally defeated and overthrown. 

His distinguished gallantry and chivalric bearing upon 
these great occasions commended him to the notice of the 
Prince, who received him into his military family. It was 
upon this vast theatre, and under this great captain, that 
young Oglethorpe was schooled in the art of war. The chi- 
valry and military capacity of the youthful soldier had not 
been impaired by time, but uniting with his strong benevo- 
lence of soul, was now, at this later period in Georgia, nobly 
exerted for the benefit and happiness of mankind. 

Upon the restoration of peace on the continent of Europe, 
Oglethorpe returned to England and entered Oxford ; where 
he successfully sought to retrieve the interruption in his edu- 
cation occasioned by his early devotion to military life. At 



23 

the age of twenty-four he was returned a member of the 
British parliament, where those great and virtuous traits of 
character, originating in the heart, were soon displa3'ed, 
w hich commanded for him, through life, the admiration of 
mankind. 

We may not compare this justly distinguished man with the 
great captains of modern Europe. His family adherence to 
the house of Stuart deprived him of those opportunities of 
advancement, necessary to mature and display his military 
capacity and character. But where every point of comparison 
would fail, it may not be uninteresting to sketch a contrast. 

Napoleon Bonaparte was the greatest man of his age and 
the first captain the world ever saw. At the head of the French 
army he overcame the barriers which nature opposed to his 
progress, and, like Hannibal of old, from the summit of the 
Alps, regaled his exhausted troops with a view of the ver- 
dant vales and fertile fields of beautiful Italy.* He passed 
into Egypt, and the crescent waned at his approach. From 
the banks of the Nile he returned to the banks of the Seine, 
and the Directory was dissolved. In a few months he gave 
a permanency and power to the consular government which 
commanded the recognition and respect of the world. He 
assumed the imperial purple, and kingdoms became his ter- 
ritories and monarchs his subjects. He marched into Russia, 
and all human opposition vanished — the elements of nature 
combined to check his career, and the snows of the north 
were alone able to cool the impetuous ardor of his vaulting 
ambition. With an army of new recruits he manoeuvred 
and battled with the combined hosts of Europe. Yesterday 
a prisoner at Elba, an Emperor to day in the palace of the 
Tuilleries. Truly Bonaparte was the greatest man of his age, 
and the first captain the world ever saw. He may have 
done much for France. He gave her a constitution and a 
code of laws. He beautified her with the labors of art, and 
adorned her with the splendid relics of the ancient masters 
of genius — rich trophies of his triumphant victories. Still, 
Bonaparte was a warrior and a conqueror, and the glory 
which encircled him was won by the shrieks and tears, and 
the wreath which adorned his brow was dyed in the blood 
of Europe. He closed his days a solitary captive on a lonely 
and distant isle of the ocean. 

* Livy, Bisset. 



24 

I can conceive of some act of unassuming benevolence, 
some balm of consolation poured into the wounded spirit of 
a single sufferer ; some delicate sympathy exerted for the 
relief of a suffering family — I can conceive of a yet more 
enlarged and extended benevolence, busying itself with the 
distressed of a whole community; of a nature so big with 
philanthropy as to extend its sympathies to suffering hu- 
manity, wherever within the range of its noble efforts wretch- 
edness was found. Yes, I can conceive of such principles 
and such actions that would have conferred upon Napoleon 
Bonaparte more deserved fame, and handed down his name 
to posterity with a higher claim to its gratitude and venera- 
tion, than all the splendors of his military achievements, and 
all the trophies of his conspicuous victories. 

These will be found to constitute the enviable basis upon 
which is erected the fame of the founder of Georgia. These 
will transmit his memory with an unfailing claim to the admi- 
ration of posterity. 

He penetrated the recesses of the dungeons of England 
and gave life and liberty to many a suffering captive — he 
searched into their abuses, and humanity and kindness 
succeeded to cruelty and oppression — he dragged before 
the public the authors of these outrages, and the rigors of 
legal confinement became tempered with mercy. With pa- 
ternal affection he gathered together the poor and destitute 
of his own country, and the wandering exile from Germany, 
the victims of religious intolerance; — with these he crossed the 
Atlantic and became in this western worid the founder of a 
new State. Abandoning the honors and pleasures of the 
first court in Europe, he devoted the best years of his fife to 
the interests and happiness of those whose welfare he had 
espoused. In this cause he expended a large portion of his 
fortune. To encourage the settlers to labor, he wielded with 
them the implements of labor — to protect them against the 
effects of French and Spanish intrigues upon the natives, he 
travelled four hundred miles through a desert wilderness 
w^ithout a path to guide or a house to lodge him, that he 
might drink with the Indian warrior the safkey and smoke 
the pipe of peace.* He legislated for them — he fought 
their battles — he never forgot them. When at the period 

* His visit to the Coweta Towns. 



25 

of the Revolution the sword of England was tendered to him 
to subdue the American colonies, he refused to accept it, 
unless the ministry would authorize him to assure the colo- 
nies that justice would be done them. He used, upon this 
occasion, the memorable language : "I know the people of 
America well ; they never will be subdued by arms, but their 
obedience will ever be secured by doing them justice." 
Thus replied Oglethorpe, and Lord Howe became the com- 
mander of the British forces for America. He raised his 
voice against the slave trade long before the efforts of Wilber- 
force were commenced. 

He was the advocate in the British parliament of a con- 
stitutional militia, and for the abolition of arbitrary impress- 
ment for the navy. He exemplified, in an eminent degree, 
the great principle of charity and brotherly love, which cha- 
racterized the craft of which he was a brother; for Ogle- 
thorpe was a mason. Possessed of knowledge, wealth and 
rank, he devoted his talents, influence and fortune to the 
relief of the sufferer and the happiness of his fellow crea- 
tures. 

Rich in every blessing himself, his benevolence for others 
"will challenge a parallel in the history of human life." 
Such was James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia. The 
evening of his hfe was spent in the quiet of domestic enjoy- 
ment in his native land. He became a patron of literature, 
and a friend of genius. The learned sought his association, 
enjoying the pleasures of intellect, and participating in the 
easy and elegant hospitality of his mansion. Orators pro- 
claimed his worth in the senate ; and the finest poets of Eng- 
land celebrated in song his virtues. The active, brilliant, 
enterprising and useful morning of life, was succeeded by an 
evening calm and serene as the western sun when he sets 
without a cloud to obscure him. 

At the close of Oglethorpe's administration we suspend 
the consideration of the progress of the colony, very briefly 
to examine the principles of government and the regulations 
adopted by the Trustees, together with their practical bear- 
ing and consequences upon the prosperity and growth of 
the province. 

There is more in this inquiry to gratify our curiosity, than 
to instruct by furnishing materials for useful historical reflec- 
tion. The advancement of the proprietory to the royal gov- 



26 

ernment had caused these regulations to be wholly super- 
seded long before our Revolution, so as to preclude all 
connection between them and that event, or the institutions 
of the country which succeeded it. The utility of an ac- 
quaintance with the principles of government which obtained 
in the earlier history of a country is, chiefly, by the contrast 
which is furnished, by a comparison with its present institu- 
tions, exciting to a more lively appreciation of their value 
and importance. 

There is but httle room here for such observations, until 
we arrive at the period of the royal government. Our in- 
quiry will, however, serve to illustrate the necessity of an 
adaptation and fitness of laws to the actual circumstances 
and condition of the people upon wdiom they are to operate ; 
to shew, that the only intelligible and authoritative rule of 
government, to a people, is that which harmonizes with their 
condition ; and that the introduction of a new system, how- 
ever specious in theory, unaccommodated to those circum- 
stances, unsupported by established practice, and conflicting 
with surrounding example, cannot be beneficially maintained. 

The successive changes experienced in the political con- 
dition of the nations of Europe, and more particularly of Eng- 
land, between the darkness of the eleventh century and the 
bright morning which dawned upon the world at the com- 
mencement of the fifteenth, were but consequences of their 
changing circumstances. The relaxation of the feudal ten- 
ures; the substitution of pecuniary rents for personal services; 
the introduction and extension of leases ; the abolition of 
the villeinage state ; the vacillation of power between the 
aristocracy and the monarch ; the finally growing importance 
of the commons, — were all changes in their political regula- 
tions accommodating the government to the improved cir- 
cumstances and condition of the people, resulting from the 
gradual increase of knowledge, the introduction of, and 
greater attention bestowed upon the useful arts, agriculture, 
manufactures and commerce ; and from an improved juris- 
prudence, resulting from the accidental discovery of a copy 
of Justinian's Pandects. 

And here it is curious to remark, that when that long 
night, which overwhelmed in darkness the civilized world, 
approached, and began to throw its lengthening shadows 
around — when the lights of science began to burn dimly — 



27 

when philosophy had become sophistry, and poetry and 
history barbarous, "the lawyers by the constant study and 
close imitation of their predecessors, were yet able to main- 
tain the same good sense in their decisions and reasonings, 
and the same purity in their language and expression."* 
And as the science of the law was thus the last light extin- 
guished amid the universal gloom, so it was the first, at 
returning dawn, that emitted its rays to illumine and cheer a 
benighted world. A review of this portion of European 
history would demonstrate the necessity, in order that the 
machine of government should work well, of adapting and 
accommodating their political institutions to the condition 
and circumstances of the people. The failure of the funda- 
mental constitution devised by the great philosopher John 
Locke, whose aid was invoked by the proprietors of South 
Carolina, when at a distance from, and ignorant of the cli- 
mate and true situation, condition and wants of the people 
of Carolina, furnishes an illustration more closely in point ; 
and imparted a lesson, which the Trustees of Georgia were 
constrained to learn, by a similar result of their benevolent 
and apparently judicious theory. The causes of difficulty 
may be embraced under three heads: — 1st. The tenure 
upon which the lands were granted ; 2d. The means of 
cultivation ; 3d. The articles of culture. 

1st. The grant was in tail male, so that upon the death of 
the tenant leaving only daughters, the land reverted to the 
Trustees. The monstrous injustice of this principle of Salic 
law, so revoking to the best feelings and affections of our 
nature, renders its adoption and application, as a public law 
designed to regulate the inheritance of private property, in 
an agricultural and commercial colony, by civilized and en- 
lightened lawgivers, a subject of wonder and astonishment — 
a principle, as applied to private possessions, which finds 
little precedent or support among enlightened and civilized 
nations ; and which refers for example, chiefly to the barba- 
rous nations by whom the Roman empire was overwhelmed. 
The exclusion of females from succession existed among the 
Teutonic nations, and was found in the ancient codes of the 
Thuiingians and Saxons. The Salian Francks, who con- 
quered Gaul, carried this custom with them ; and the Salic 



Hume. 



28 

law was supposed to have been enacted about the time of 
Clavis. But even by this law there existed a right of setting 
aside the law and admitting females to succession by testa- 
ment.* This provision was supported, however, by two 
plausible reasons, viz. the great expense at which the Trus- 
tees had effected the settlement of the colony ; and the 
necessity that the occupants should be persons capable of 
rendering military service for its protection against the Span- 
iards and Indians. But the freedom and security of pro- 
perty, and the absolute nature of the title is the strongest 
incentive to activity and industry ; whilst an uncertain and 
contingent tenure paralyzes effort and limits our views and 
exertions only to the present. 

With regard to the means of cultivation, slavery was abso- 
lutely prohibited, and the settlers had to rely upon their own 
labor. The inhibition of slavery resulted from the relative 
position Georgia was intended to bear towards South Caroli- 
na as a protection against the Spaniards and Indians; the bet- 
ter to fulfil which, it was deemed important to introduce this 
restriction ; and also, because a large portion of the setders 
were poor and unable to procure slaves, it was thought that 
the influence of the example of slavery would be unfavorable 
upon the industry of that portion of the whites who were 
thus constrained to personal labor. 3d. As a consequence 
of the prohibition of slavery, and the necessity of personal 
labor by the whites, as also from a supposed adaptedness 
of soil and climate the Trustees had fixed upon silk and 
wine as leading articles of culture, from which the most pro- 
fitable results were anticipated. These restrictions tended 
greatly to paralyze the energy and industry of the colonists. 
The example furnished from South Carolina, where the 
lands were holden in fee and cultivated by slaves, was con- 
tagious and fatal. 

The Georgians beheld their neighbors in the indulgence 
of the ease and enjoying the advantages of slave labor, and 
they thirsted for the same benefits and privileges. Confined 
to a culture of which they had no sufficient knowledge and 
experience, and from which they reaped no equivalent return 
for their labor and care, while their rich low lands remained 
neglected and uncultivated, they longed for the assistance of 
that species of force by which they could reclaim them. 

* See Hallam. 



29 

They saw the cultivated plantations of Carolina descend- 
ing for the general benefit of families, or capable of being 
devised, and they revolted at the idea that the fruits of their 
labor and improvements should revert, while their widows 
and daughters were left unprovided for. 

While such were the effects upon the settlers, the influ- 
ence of these restrictions upon the colony was yet more 
extensive, by deterring the wealthy from settling in Georgia 
and directing their emigration principally to South Carolina, 
where the inducements were so much stronger. The influ- 
ence of these combined causes greatly retarded the progress 
and growth of the colony and defeated the sanguine antici- 
pations of the trustees and mother country. Silk, the 
favorite pursuit of the Trustees, so long neglected in Georgia, 
after the lapse of more than a century is now beginning to 
attract general attention, and whether we undertake to be- 
come manufacturers, or be considered as merely the growers 
and producers of the raw material, is doubtless destined to 
bring again into utility our exhausted soils, to furnish suitable 
employment for weak and infirm laborers and greatly to in- 
crease the wealth and capital of our state. Abundant cause, 
it is true, may be found in the inaptitude and hostility of en- 
tails to the genius and character of our republican institutions, 
to have produced the constitutional provision in Georgia 
prohibiting them ; but as the most important measures are 
frequently traced to remote and faint causes, it is not impro- 
bable, that the early prejudices created here on this subject 
may have had considerable agency in producing that inhi- 
bition. 

The retirement of General Oglethorpe was succeeded by 
the appointment of a President and Council. The colony 
still continued to languish, and no material alteration occurred 
in its condition for a series of years. Even this period of 
its history is however not without its interest ; and many 
thrilling events are recorded, illustrative of the difficulties 
and dangers by which the colonists were surrounded, and the 
firmness and character by which they were encountered. 
One event in particular transpired, which is worthy of notice, 
because it severely tested the President* and Council, threat- 
ened the destruction of the colony, and brought it to the 

* William Stephens was then President. 



30 

brink of ruin. In the treaties which had been ratified with 
the Indians, the islands of St. Catherines, Ossabaw and Sapelo 
were reserved as hunting grounds to the Indians. A man 
named Thomas Bosomworth who came to Georgia as chap- 
lain to Oglethorpe's regiment, married an Indian woman 
named Mary, formerly an interpreter for Oglethorpe. This 
man, stimulated by his cupidity, was induced to claim the 
reserved islands in right of his wife. 

He tampered with the Indians by artful misrepresentations 
of the intentions of the English, and succeeded in prevailing 
with them to acknowledge his wife as queen of the upper 
and lower Creeks. She marched upon Savannah with a 
host of Indians, chiefs and warriors, and demanded the im- 
mediate surrender of all the lands south of Savannah, under 
the threat, in case of refusal, of the exdrpation of the colony. 
The whole force of the town, amounting to only one hundred 
and seventy men capable of bearing arms, were called out. 
The inhabitants were in the greatest consternation and 
alarm — the inflamed savages roamed through the streets 
menacing hostility. The utmost firmness and prudence 
were now necessary to manage this delicate affair, and 
prevent extremities ; fortunately, these were not wanting. 
Bosomworth and Mary being privately seized were put into 
close confinement : while the Indians were collected and 
addressed by the President, and every mode of conciliation 
tried. The President undertook to distribute presents among 
them, and the flattering hope of an amicable termination 
began to be indulged, when suddenly Mary, released from 
confinement, rushed in among the Indians and again in- 
flamed them to hostility. Malatche, an Indian chief, started 
from his seat, seized his arms and called upon the rest to 
follow his example. Instantly hundreds of uplifted toma- 
hawks threatened the President and Council with immediate 
death — universal tumult and confusion pervaded the whole 
house. At this critical moment a bold and gallant officer,* 
commander of the guards, followed by his men well armed, 
threw himself into the door and ordered the Indians imme- 
diately to surrender their arms. This display of courage, 
sustained by ready preparation for immediate action, pro- 
cured a reluctant submission from the Indians. Mary was 

* Captain Jones. 



31 

confined under a guard and all access to her denied. The 
Indians were finally prevailed on peaceably to retire, and the 
colony was thus relieved by its firmness and intrepidity, fi"om 
this appalling danger. 

In the year 1750 the restrictions respecting the titles to 
land were removed, and a colonial assembly was authorized. 
In 1752 the trustees resigned their charter and the province 
became a royal government, admitted to all the privileges 
and liberties enjoyed by the neighboring provinces. Its 
progress was still retarded by the weakness and insufficiency 
of several administrators ; and it was not until the appoint- 
ment of Sir James Wright as Governor of Georgia that she 
emerged from the long state of depression into which 
she had sunk, became sensible of her vast resources, and 
of the means of bringing them into activity and usefulness. 
The rich and fertile low lands and river swamps were now 
reclaimed and brought into cultivation — her agriculture 
assumed a new aspect, and her commerce advanced pro- 
gressively with it upon a broader and more expanded scale. 
The planter, animated with his prospects, gave new vigor to 
his industry and exerdons, while the capital of England was 
freely brought to his aid through an extensive credit system, 
as confidence was established in the rapidly advancing pros- 
pects and ultimate success of the colony. 

In this prosperous state we leave the colony for a while, 
to glance at one or two topics which merit a passing notice. 
The aborigines of this continent have always consdtuted a 
fruitful subject of interest and curious investigation. At the 
settlement of Georgia, the territory embraced within the 
charter, was inhabited by hordes of savages, known as the 
Muscogee or Creeks, the Cherokees, the Chickasaws and 
the Choctaws. They were all characterized by similar hab- 
its, customs and pursuits, although in fact distinguished as 
nations, (if nations they might be called,) or distinct commu- 
nities by the foregoing appellations. The Creeks occupied 
the sea board and neighboring country, and were in the 
possession of that portion of Georgia first occupied by the 
settlers. 

They have a tradition among them, that they came from 
the west — that, being distressed by wars with other Indian 
tribes, they crossed the Mississippi, directing their course 
eastwardly, and settled below the falls of Chattahouchee ; 



32 

from whence they spread out to Qckmulgee, Oconee, Savan- 
nah, and down on the sea coast of Carolina, where they 
first met with the whites. 

As it regards their civil and political condition, there was 
nothing among any of these tribes which bore the semblance 
of an established government. They lived gregariously, as 
wandering hunters, without unity or compact as a people; 
and with no other ideas of laws than such as were confined 
to a few immemorial customs. Each distinct community 
was again divided into tribes or families ; many of which 
families inhabited together the same town. Each tribe being 
distinguished by some appellative usually derived from the 
brute creation or vegetable world, as the eagle or bear 
tribe, &c. 

Individuals of the same tribe were not permitted to inter- 
marry. The chief civil office in each town was by hered- 
itary succession in some one tribe ; but as that succession 
was always in the female line, so in process of time it passed 
through the diflferent tribes. In the centre of the town was 
the public square, surrounded by the houses of their chief, 
warriors, and assistant counsellors or beloved men. Within 
this square their council fires blazed, their solemn business 
was transacted, and the dance was had. 

The civil government was in the hands of their Micco and 
beloved men, by whom was appointed their great warrior or 
ruler of military aflfairs, with the power of declaring war and 
determining upon its continuance. Their marriages were 
principally adjusted by the female members of the families 
of the respective parties ; but it was an indispensable requi- 
site on the part of the suitor, that he should have made his 
hunt, gathered his crop, and built his house. The privilege 
of punishing for murder was reserved to the tribe or family 
of the injured party ; who sometimes accepted a pecuniary 
compensation, analogous to the wercgild or composition for 
homicide which obtained among the ancient Francks ; or, in 
case of flight, resorted to the next of kin. 

Their notions of religion were exceedingly vague. Yet 
they were not destitute of an idea of some Supreme Being 
whom they denominated a master of breath — a God, there- 
fore, in whom they lived and moved and had their being. 
They fixed his residence in the clear sky, and believed that 
there were two with him, three in all. 



33 

Such was the condition of the aborigines within the char- 
tered limits of Georgia when our ancestors arrived here.* 

Where is the posterity of the red man who once inhab- 
ited this land, now so changed by the meliorating hand of 
civilization, industry and art? There is a melancholy senti- 
ment pervading our bosoms in the contemplation of their 
story and destiny. It is the destiny of the law of nations; 
ignorance and savagism must yield to the superior power of 
light, knowledge and civilization. It is the destiny of an 
inscrutable providence. 

Endowed with a nature, and established in habits immu- 
table as nature, which defy the influence of civilization and 
the admission of improvement, they stand in the creation of 
God's intelligent beings, unapproachable for purposes of 
change and melioration ; they present the spectacle of a 
"moral phenomenon," at which we wonder, and for whom 
we sympathize, but over whose destiny we have no control. 
It seems to be fixed by the law of their nature, by the wis- 
dom of an inscrutable providence. 

It is honorable to human nature that their fate should have 
awakened the attention and excited the sympathy of this 
great Republic. 

But by the universal consent of European nations making 
discovery on this continent, the common principle was adopt- 
ed, that such discovery conferred title. 

The charters conferred by the crown of Great Britain 
granted the absolute domain and right of jurisdiction. But 
the application of the principle before stated, however admit- 
ted as between the discoverers, has been denied towards the 
aborigines — and notwithstanding the terms of the charter 
the Indian right of occupancy has been respected ; and 
Georgia, like most of her sister States, have acquired that 
right by purchase and cession. 

The neglect and failure of the general government to ex- 
tinguish the admitted right of Indian occupancy under the 
compact of 1802, and the subsequent extension of her laws 
by the State over the territory occupied by the Cherokees, 
has furnished a theme for reproach, not authorized by the 
conduct of the State under the circumstances in which she 

* I have collected these facts principally from a copy of Col. Hawkins's manuscript, 
taken by the late Gen. John Floyd, and presented to our Society by Gen. Charles 
Floyd. Many of these original writings of Col. Hawkins have now been procured 
by the Society. 



34 

was placed — circumstances, so strongly evincive of her 
great forbearance towards this peculiar people, and patience 
under entire neglect by the general government, as ought in 
themselves to have shielded her from the aspersions to which 
she has been subjected. It never could have been seriously 
contemplated by any reflecting and intelligent mind, that a 
permanent Indian government should be established within 
the chartered limits of any one of the States. The idea 
would have been chimerical, and is repudiated by public 
policy, by example and by necessity. France and Spain, 
from their earliest settlements in North America, adopted the 
policy of considering the Indians in a state of pupilage, ex- 
tending over them their protection and care ; by this policy 
they avoided the embarrassments of the English system. 
Great Britain in the Canadas, the government of the United 
States, and all the older States, among whom fragments of 
Indian tribes remained, were ultimately constrained to the 
adoption of the same policy, and enacted statutes for their 
protection and restraint. The very compact of 1802 between 
Georgia and the general government, illustrates the fact, that 
the idea first suggested was never entertained by the na- 
tional government. The fullness of the example derived 
from other States is attempted to be diminished, upon the 
distinction, that the remnants of their tribes had ceased to 
exercise the right and power of self government. But when 
that point of weakness and degradation has been attained, 
which will authorize the extension of the local law over 
them, and by whom it is to be ascertained and determined, 
are questions which have not been solved. Contemplate the 
Indian character — without an established government of 
their own, without a knowledge and recognition of general 
principles to regulate and restrain them ; reared in a fond- 
ness for war and blood — familiar with cruelties and revenge, 
without moral influences and without religious principles — 
untamed and untutored ; incapable of being softened and 
instructed — It is obvious that such a people could not sus- 
tain a near approach to, and contact with the whites, with- 
out rendering the position of both intolerable, and imperiously 
requiring the superior power to restrain and control the 
weaker. 

The dictates of humanity too, instead of being violated, 
unite with the former considerations in enforcing the propri- 



35 

ety of controlling or removing them. For in the approxima- 
tion of the two races, both physical and moral causes have 
operated to diminish and annihilate the latter, and to render 
essential a guardianship over them. The American people 
have not been indifferent to their improvement ; the chari- 
ties of Christianity have not slumbered over this unfortunate 
race. Efforts have been fruitlessly made, and different means 
and agencies in vain employed. The Cherokees of Georgia 
have formed no essential exception to the universal failure. 
Glowing descriptions have indeed been given of their rapid 
march in civilization. But we have the testimony of those 
best acquainted, and most to be relied on, that notwithstand- 
ing individual instances of decided improvement and ad- 
vancement, the great body of the tribe remained, despite of 
all efforts, unchanged and unchangeable. They have gone 
forever from the land of their fathers to occupy the regions 
of the far and distant west. We lament their condition, we 
regret their fate, we are unable to explain the mysteries of 
Providence towards them. 

Another topic, which seems to me to call for a passing 
notice, results from the institution of slavery among us. With 
the abstract question of slavery I have nothing to do here. 
The institution rests upon the constitution and laws of the 
land ; and there, we trust, the sense and intelligence and 
patriotism of the nation will permit it to repose in safety, not- 
withstanding the chimerical and visionary ebstract specula- 
tions with which the country has latterly been so wantonly 
agitated. My business with this subject is limited to quite 
a different purpose. It is an historical fact, to which we have 
already alluded, that at the settlement of Georgia slavery was 
inhibited ; and it is equally true, that, with some exceptions,* 
our ancestry were urgent and solicitous in their reiterated 
appeals to the Trustees for its introduction. My object is to 
vindicate their conduct on this point ; and place them in the 
position they are entided to occupy. Properly to estimate 
their course, it is necessary to look at the state of the public 
mind on this subject in that day ; to look at it with the lights 
which then existed, and in intimate connection with the cir- 
cumstances and relations in which the colony of Georgia 



* The Highlanders at Darien, and the Germans at Ebenezer, opposed it, and pre- 
sented counter petitions. 

5 



36 

found itself. We live in a world of changing opinions and 
of increasing light and knowledge. At the period to which 
we are referring, the slave trade, now universally and justly 
condemned by all civilized nations, was as universally tole- 
rated by all. England, who, under the persevering and 
active labors of a Wilberforce, led the way in the great 
work of suppressing this odious traffic, was then most ac- 
tive in peopling her colonies, wherever they were needed, 
with slaves. The vast operations of missionary associations 
for evangehzing the world, which we behold at this day, had 
not been conceived. It is true that some small and slender 
associations for this purpose had commenced in England 
more than a century ago, but these were only the beginnings 
of a system, the developements of which had not entered into 
the conceptions of the Christian world. Good and pious men 
were appealed to on this subject. They looked upon Africa 
sunk in the darkness of midnight and paganism. They were 
enabled to realize no access to her, no means of reaching 
her, no hope for her from the light of the Gospel. They 
adopted the conclusion, that their condition would be better 
by being introduced into civilized and Christian communities ; 
where notwithstanding they were required to labor, they 
might be kindly treated and instructed and enlightened in 
the knowledge of the truth. Our ancestors were placed here 
in a country peculiarly and primarily adapted to agriculture, 
with the example before their eyes of the existence and tole- 
ration of the system in all of the elder colonies. I submit, that 
it was the natural result of these causes combined, that they 
should have desired to participate in the benefits of a sys- 
tem then justified by the opinion of the world, of the mother 
country and the example of her sister colonies. We ask 
only for an equality of position on this subject ; and are wil- 
ling to assume our full proportion of responsibility and ac- 
countability to which we may be held by the opinions of the 
day, so unwarrantably intruded upon the country, at the 
hazard of its happiness and repose. 

We left the colonists, after years of languor and despon- 
dency, prosperous and flourishing. The Spaniard had been 
driven back into his strong hold — the Indian had been sub- 
dued by friendly intercourse and kindness, or repelled in his 
hostile attacks, had been compelled to sue for peace. 

They were now to encounter an enemy of a different cha- 



37 

racter and of vast resources and power ; and to endure a 
conflict more terrible than any they had known. That enemy 
was the parent country from whom they sprung ; that con- 
flict their great Revolutionary struggle. 

Of the causes which led to this extraordinary result I may 
not speak ; they are contained in that undying instrument, 
the Declaration of Independence — they are interwoven with 
the national history. Nor may I enter into details of the 
long and bloody war which followed. They have been elo- 
quently delineated in many a patriotic address dedicated to 
the celebration of our national anniversary jubilee. The 
situation of Georgia, however, in the commencement of this 
struggle was peculiar, and merits notice. She was the 
youngest and feeblest of the colonies. The number of her 
white inhabitants small and scattered, in the midst of a large 
slave population. Her frontier was occupied by powerful tribes 
of warlike savages ; and a royal governor presided over her 
councils of great talents and energy, and whose course of 
administration had commended him to the esteem of the peo- 
ple. In such circumstances, it required stout hearts and 
ardent devotion to liberty to plunge at once into the vortex 
of revolution. That plunge was however made. 

What means that shout that rends the air and strikes with 
amazement upon the senses of the royal governor? A liberty- 
pole stands erect in the streets of Savannah, and Tondee's 
tavern reechoes with the cheers of a band of noble republi- 
cans, willing martyrs, if need be, in the cause of liberty. 

The arrival of General Gates in Boston with a British fleet 
and army, and the events which immediately followed, lighted 
the torch of revolution and resistance, which, blazing through 
the colonies, flamed as purely and brightly in Georgia as 
among the patriotic sons of liberty in New England. The 
magazine in this city was immediately seized in the dead of 
night by a party of gentlemen, and the powder conveyed 
away and secured in their own houses. A ship, then recently 
from England, under command of captain Maitland lying at 
Tybee, was approached by a party of men in two boats, 
taken, and thirteen thousand pounds of powder obtained — 
five thousand pounds of which were sent to the inhabitants 
of Boston.* The provincial house of assembly ordered the 

" These boats were commanded by Com. Bowcn and Col. Joseph Habersham. 



38 

arrest of Governor Wright ; that order was immediately exe- 
cuted by voUmteers raised and commanded by a youthtul but 
devoted son of Uberty.* The Governor was paroled to his 
house, from whence he escaped in the night, and took refuge 
on board a British armed ship lying at Tybee. 

Such were the energetic and spirited measures imme- 
diately taken in Savannah by her republican and patriotic 
sons, at the commencement of difficulty with England. 
The spirit of resistance, awakened throughout the country, 
had not, as yet, looked beyond a redress of grievances. But 
these decided and bold measures betokened a higher aim, and 
excited the public feeling to a preparation for it. The word 
" Independence " began to be whispered — at first with cau- 
tion, and only by the bold and decided ; but it soon burst 
forth in the noble instrument which announced to the world 
their wrongs and proclaimed their separation from the British 
Crown. It was reechoed from Massachusetts to Georgia 
with an emphasis that starded the monarch on his throne, 
and arrayed against infant America, the mighty power and 
vast resources of old England. Now was fairly commenced 
that mighty conflict, which, amidst all the eventful vicissitudes 
and appalling discouragements of so unequal a contest, was 
destined to terminate only, when the British hon had crouch- 
ed beneath the talons of the American eagle. 

Liberty, banished from her ancient habitations, an exile 
and a wanderer on the condnent of Europe, took a tempo- 
rary refuge under the limited monarchy of England ; but as 
a Hampden fell, and the life-blood of a Sidney flowed, she 
uttered the shriek of despair, and crossing the ocean, sought 
an asylum on these western shores. Her enemies pursued 
her here, and threatened her extermination from the earth. 
For seven long years nourished and sustained by the blood 
of heroes and patriots and martyrs, behold her now^ more 
beautiful and lovely than ever, and enraptured with the land 
which had so freely sacrificed in her cause, she has, as we 
fondly hope, forever fixed her abode in these United States. 

Will that cherished hope be realized ? Interesting inqui- 
ry ! interesting to the present generation, to posterity, to the 
world. Our fathers rested not when they had achieved their 
independence — they labored to secure it, and to transmit 

* Colonel Habersham. 



39 

its blessings to their descendants. They were not less con- 
spicuous for the wisdom of their counsels in the cabinet, than 
distinguished for their heroic valor and fordtude in the field. 
If they had encircled their brows with honor and glory as 
heroes and warriors, they added an undying immortality to 
their names as legislators. They erected a government, very 
far surpassing any model, which the world had known in 
practical operation. 

By the introduction of the federative and representative 
principles, they accommodated a republican system to the 
difficult operation of regulating an extended territory, with a 
population of different and sometimes jarring interests. By 
surrounding it with all the checks and balances which human 
ingenuity could devise, they endeavored to provide for its 
security. By the recognition of the fundamental principle 
that sovereignty abides in the people, and thus constituting 
them the source of all legidmate power, they infused into it a 
recuperative energy, a resuscitating principle. The people 
are thus constituted the arbiters of their own destiny. 

And the argument is founded on sound basis which sup- 
poses, that a departure, in the administration of government 
from its great first principles, operating injuriously to the in- 
terests of the people, will ultimately find its corrective in this 
renovating feature of the government. Many causes may 
lead us to aberrate far from the path of duty and happiness 
— the conflicts of sectional interests, the impulses of ungov- 
erned ambition, the excitements of party — but still, the ten- 
dency of this principle will be to restore us. Its force and 
power, however, depend upon, and essentially imply requi- 
site qualifications in the people. These are mainly virtue 
and knowledge. How great, in this respect, is our preemi- 
nence over the once splendid but fallen republics of anti- 
quity ? The lights of science indeed beamed upon them ; 
but they were destitute of that better knowledge which 
illuminates our moral nature, and subdues the mighty powers 
of intellect and mind beneath the controlling influence of 
virtue. The history of much later periods exhibits the pro- 
gress of human improvement darkened with many shades, 
and the perversion of the highest attainments in science and 
knowledge to the destruction of the foundations of social 
order and happiness. The eighteenth century, in the exam- 
ple and fate of continental Europe, furnishes a memorable 



40 

lesson to the world of the awful consequences of a separa- 
tion between the lights of philosophy and the obligations of 
religion ; and demonstrates the necessity, that the monument 
erected to science should be placed at the side of an altar 
erected to the Deity, We are professedly a Christian peo- 
ple, and if our country is destined to escape the dangers 
which wrecked the ancient republics, to survive the shock 
of time, and continue a blessing to her people, and an exam- 
ple for good to the nations of the earth, it will be mainly 
owing to the fact, that we are a Christian people. 

Far preeminent too, over the ancients is our position with 
regard to the means of diffusing that degree of intelligence 
and education among all classes of the people, necessary to 
a correct apprehension of the nature of our government, and 
the exercise of a proper judgment upon its administration. 
I allude to that expanded system of public and free schools, 
so universally adopted in our country ; and, to the mighty 
power introduced by the art of printing and a public press. 
It is not the eminence attained, in particular departments of 
the sciences, that is involved in our present reflections. This 
is confined in all countries to a few favored geniuses. It is a 
more humble degree, but a general diffusion of knowledge 
we are contemplating. 

The three great departments of active industry and pro- 
ductive labor, agriculture, manufactures and commerce, are 
constantly tending to augment the wealth and power of the 
country, and thus add to the stability and perpetuity of the 
government. The very collisions which these sometimes 
conflicting interests create, have reacted on the administration 
with a purifying influence. Whilst the vastly increasing pop- 
ulation of our country, with its consequent increased demands 
upon each of these departments, must ere long place them 
respectively beyond the necessity of legislative protection, 
and enable each to flourish by its own unaided strength. 

The spirit of improvement in our country has taken a 
sound and healthful direction. The republics and empires 
of antiquity, and the despotic governments of more modern 
times, employed much of their superabundant wealth in the 
erection of splendid ornaments, exciting a false and vicious 
taste, and provoking the national pride and vanity into an 
admiration for delusive, unreal and unsubstantial objects. 
An hundred generations the leaves of autumn have dropt 



41 

into the grave, and yet the pyramids stand erect and unbro- 
ken above the floods of the Nile.* But what is the country, 
and where are the civil and political institutions of the Pha- 
raohs and Ptolemies ? Alas ! these useless monuments sur- 
vive only to admonish us of the folly and vanity of human 
pride and ambition. 

Where is Rome, with all her splendid monuments of 
greatness and wealth? Where her temples, her columns, 
her colossal statues, her amphitheatres 1 Alas ! the wheel 
of fortune has accomplished her revolution, and the tri- 
umphal monuments of Caesar and the Antonines have 
tottered from their foundations. These stupendous exhi- 
bitions of magnificence, wealth and genius, contained no- 
thing to renovate the decaying youth and revive the droop- 
ing virtues of a falling state, or to vanquish the injuries of 
time and fate. 

They were idle and barren monuments of parade, oppres- 
sive to the generations by whom they were raised, without 
a redeeming quality of good to posterity. Utility is im- 
pressed in living images upon all the enterprizes and im- 
provements of our country — to this great purpose the genius 
of her people, and her resources, both individual and public, 
are bent with an energy and perseverance productive of the 
grandest results to the happiness, power and durabihty of 
our country and her institutions. A wholesome and moral 
tone is imparted to the public taste and feeling, which 
strengthens, while it purifies. Here no pyramids, of gigan- 
tic proportions, will lift their towering summits to the skies — 
no coliseum, with its huge bulk, cumber the earth — no 
Ephesian, no Roman temple, of gorgeous magnificence, will 
violate the simplicity and humility of our holy worship. The 
splendid monuments of the wisdom and enterprize of this 
age, and of this country in particular, which will be trans- 
mitted for the happiness as well as admiration of posterity, 
will consist in the trophies of genius won by its amazing in- 
ventions in the useful arts; and in those vast and grand 
works of internal improvement which, linking together the 
distant parts of our wide-spread territory, and abridging that 
distance by easy and rapid communication, will cultivate 
familiar personal acquaintance and knowledge, produce 

• Gibbon. 



42 

identity of interests, and, by instructing us in our recipro- 
cal dependence, strengthen and perpetuate the bond of our 
national union. These monuments will consist in that ex- 
panded system of general and public education, to which so 
much of the wealth of the country has been applied, for the 
enlightenment of mind and diffusion of knowledge, "the 
palladium of a free government, the guaranty of the repre- 
sentative system, and the aegis of our federative existence."* 

These are some of the considerations, which sustain our 
hope, in the strength and perpetuity of our government and 
institutions. Yet, when we contemplate the delicate rela- 
tions which exist in our complex system, and the nice equi- 
poise required to preserve the several distinct governments 
within their respective orbits ; when we look upon the dis- 
cordant and jarring interests to be adjusted, and sectional 
jealousies to be regulated and controlled — when we reflect 
upon the moral corruptions, the spirit of faction, the prompt- 
ings of unholy ambition incident to all free states — we may 
not conceal from ourselves the dangers that surround us. 
Our experience of the past, short and limited as it is, ad- 
monishes us that there is a reality in these suggestions ; and 
enforces the truth of the political axiom that, " the price of 
liberty is eternal vigilance." In that momentous period, 
when our safety shall be threatened ; when the wild spirit of 
faction, like a mighty flood, bursting over the barriers that 
confine it, shall deluge our plains and fields, comminghng 
"the wandering rivulet and the silver lake" in the confused 
roar of its disturbed and agitated waters, — oh, then let us 
cling to the constitution of our country — it is the ark of our 
political safety — it will bear us securely above the angry 
floods, and amidst the noise of many waters, and land us in 
safety at last upon another Ararat. 

When mad and unrestrained ambition, unmindful of duty 
and of country, shall fiercely mingle in the strife for power 
and for place — Ah ! then let the American citizen turn him 
to the history of his country, and on that page which records 
the illustrious deeds of his ancestors, he will behold a noble 
example of patriotism and virtue ; and like the Athenian of 
old, in view of the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton, he 
will be subdued to a sense of the love and duty which he 

* De Witt Clinton. 



43 

owes to his country. Let him meditate on the high respon- 
sibility of each succeeding generation to preserve and per- 
petuate to posterity the blessings of this fair fabric of govern- 
ment. Let him contemplate our position towards the nations 
of the earth, and the necessity of maintaining this last, noble, 
living example of freedom and self government. Let him 
cast his eye forward upon the unborn millions, whose des- 
tiny, for happiness or woe, hang suspended on the final issue 
of our grand political experiment. Let him ascend the 
mount of vision, and looking through the vista of the future, 
survey the glory and grandeur of his country, as she shall 
be in the remote annals of time, successfully resisting the 
principles of destruction, erect amid the injuries of time and 
fortune, the abode of happiness, the asylum of the oppressed, 
the light of the world. And, in the mighty anticipation may 
every unholy feeling be absorbed in the one great overruling 
sentiment of Love for our Country. 



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